It’s finally here… almost. Tap and Go fare payments will be trialled from Monday (16th March) on the Craigieburn, Upfield, Ballarat and Seymour lines.
This is important technology. Having bank cards (and connected devices such as phones) as a fare payment option is vital for new and occasional users, including tourists. They don’t want the hassle of figuring out how and where to buy a card, and figuring out the fare system (made worse thanks to the rollout of QR codes to replace posters with actual fare info). Even Android Mobile Myki couldn’t help with that.
So this progress is good. Of course we’d all like the full rollout, but anybody who remembers Myki from the first time round knows they shouldn’t rush to get it in before it’s fully tested.
From what I’ve seen it looks pretty good. Here’s a clip from a few weeks ago in the test centre.
One thing you will notice: it says Tap Successful. It doesn’t tell you if it was a Tap On or a Tap Off. Unless it’s at a fare gate where direction is obvious, it doesn’t know – all the taps are tallied up and at the end of the day, the backend systems work out how much to charge to your bank card.
Other things:
If you want to participate, look for the specially marked card readers at stations on those lines.
I’m told they chose the lines thanks to them having the highest proportion of passengers who don’t interchange to elsewhere, so they’re hoping to have plenty of people try it out.
Full fare Myki Money only for now. Eventually you’ll be able to set up an account to link a bank card to your concession entitlement.
I doubt they’ll implement prepaid Myki Passes (it’s so fiddly to preload them that it defeats the purpose), but they absolutely should implement an automatic 7-day cap, alongside the existing daily cap.
If you’re using a phone, be aware that when linked to a specific bank/credit card, they use a different “virtual” card number to the bank card. This means the phone’s virtual card and the actual card are treated as separate cards, so they won’t share 2-hour and Daily fares. Stick to one or the other.
The new Express Transit web site has been tracking Tap And Go rollouts across the world. We’re behind the rest of Australia (Sydney 2018, Canberra 2024, Brisbane 2025, Hobart 2025, Perth 2025, Adelaide 2026), but not doing too badly worldwide… a number of major world cities have only got it in the past couple of years, and some still don’t have it, for example Paris.
Of course people can keep using Myki cards if they prefer, for instance if they don’t want anything linked to their bank account (or they don’t have a bank account) or they want to continue to travel anonymously.
But it’s good to have the option.
Comments? Questions fire away!
12 replies on “Myki Tap and Go: Public trial”
I wonder which card takes precedence if you have both a Myki and a credit card on your phone. Hopefully the Myki?
Also disappointing they haven’t done anything to resolve the lack of Amex support.
Thanks for sharing your insights from the testing centre Daniel! I am excited that express mode will be supported from day 1. Also jon, buried under “What can’t I use?” on the linked FAQ page reveals “We are working with American Express to make contactless payment available to those cardholders’ soon”.
I understand why the system doesn’t tell you if you’ve tapped on or off, as Sydney and Brisbane also work like this, but I would be interested to know what happens if you lose track of whether you’re tapped on or off at a non fare gate station or aboard a tram/bus. This has happened to me in those other cities and I often find when I go shopping near Glenferrie Station the same route 16 tram often takes me home as the shops are near the terminus, when I tap my myki upon boarding the same tram going home, I am touched off and have to wait a moment so I can touch back on (if I don’t touch off when getting off the first time). I have also noticed this for Camberwell Junction shops on the route 70. Will people be fined by authorised officers if they stuff this up and accidentally tap off when getting back on, or will your fare remain valid for the whole 2 hours regardless of whether you’re currently tapped on or off? If you get a chance to ask the team working on this it would be great to know if they’ve considered this scenario and have a solution.
[…] four train lines today (Upfield, Craigieburn, Seymour, and Ballarat) – Daniel Bowen notes these were chosen due to the “highest proportion of passengers who don’t interchange to […]
Daniel – any indication if we’re getting Apple Express Transit as part of the rollout?
They should make all fares 50 cents like they do in Brisbane. Nice and easy. Plus with cost of living pressures that would be good for the community. Maybe the opposition could use it as an election promise? We spent billions on the original myki system when we could have copied the go card system used in Brisbane which has been used successfully for years. Tapping with bank cards. I think we should have a Royal commission into where the funds went for the original myki system. Because it stinks to high heaven.
Now, I understand as to why, you want to do a trail on a couple of lines only.
But,I fail to understand as to why, you only have some machines on those stations doing this new payment types??? On what looked like Essondon station on the TV news just then, only some of those validators had this setup on.
They have said that, they can turn on this payment type onto those validations right next to the ones that already do, but why not have all machines at a station do this?
@Jon, I think the Mobile Myki should take precedence if it’s set up, but I’ll try to verify that soon.
@Wyatt, yes you’re right – the same physical tram for two tram rides has been a problem for years with Myki cards.
It shouldn’t make a difference to the charge. Two taps within 2 hours should result in a single 2-hour fare being charged (whether it’s Myki or a bank card).
I haven’t heard of people having issues with Authorised Officers (inspectors) checking Myki cards with this issue, so hopefully not a problem.
@Guy, yes Express Transit is working. The phone in the video was locked.
Note the Face ID prompt that flashed up briefly. The linked bank account was charged. My assumption is that because I held the phone to the reader well after the tap was confirmed, the phone looked around for something else, and momentarily decided it needed Face ID 🤷
@Charle, very cheap or free fares don’t make a huge difference to household transport costs compared to other measures. The bigger difference is from reduced car use and ownership, eg better PT services that more people can use. https://danielbowen.com/2024/03/16/transport-in-a-cost-of-living-crisis/
@TranzitJim, yeah I’m not sure why they’ve limited the number of readers. Maybe to not encourage too many people to use it, as they do want to ensure it works efficiently as it scales up.
Glad we’ve finally got a good option for visitors and tourists.
I will continue to use cash with an unregistered myki, the most privacy preserving option we have (though not as private as single-use tickets!)
It is just better to use a myki card. Why is it so hard for people to use a myki??? It would also be better if they had single journey tickets like almost everywhere else in the world. For busses it can just be a set fee and a cash box in the bus to put money in when boarding
My vague understanding is that this is entirely new software (rewrite?), as a result even the myki support is still very experimental. If true would explain the limited number of readers for now.
Presumably if you forget to touch on, gates at end of journey will still let you touch off with credit card, because they don’t know you didn’t touch on.
But wonder how AOs can check…
@Heather, yes you are correct – an unregistered Myki card is the best option for privacy.
@John Cooper, it’s entirely up to you – you can keep using a Myki card if you prefer.
But don’t assume that your preference matches everybody else’s. That’s why in other cities offering Tap And Go, a lot of people use it.
@Brian May, I wouldn’t say it’s all new. Remember that Conduent has run other similar systems elsewhere.
But yes, adding it to the Myki business rules is why they need to do testing and trials to make sure it’s right.
AOs will have a reader to check your bank card number, and check if there’s a record of it being used to tap on.